


Signs of Spring

by SailorSol



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman and Robin (Comics), DCU (Comics), Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: All the Robins - Freeform, Batfamily Feels, Extended Metaphors, Family, Gen, References to Final Crisis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-05
Updated: 2014-09-05
Packaged: 2018-02-16 06:10:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2258781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SailorSol/pseuds/SailorSol
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone knows that Robins are the first signs of spring. Each one in turn helps Bruce come back to life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Signs of Spring

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Moontyger](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moontyger/gifts).



> I'm sorry I didn't know any of the fandoms you requested for this exchange. I hope you at least enjoy this. Apologies for any canon goofs, while I am a big Batman fan, I'm not familiar with the comics outside of fandom osmosis.

1\. Dick Grayson - Joy

Dick became Robin before he saw Bruce’s first _real_ smile. His new guardian smiled in all his photos, and he always smiled during all the boring parties. But Dick had been a performer his entire life, and he knew what a fake smile looked like. Fake smiles were fine if you were putting on a show; it wasn’t until learning about Batman that Dick realized that was exactly what Bruce was doing. And that was when Dick made it his goal to get Bruce to crack a real grin.

Bruce wasn’t impressed by Dick’s culinary attempts. He tried all of his best jokes and even some of the routines he’d seen the clowns do. He didn’t grin when Dick brought home a perfect test score or announced he was going to dress as Superman for Halloween that year.

It wasn’t until they were on patrol one night that it happened. They’d swung from the top of Wayne Tower and Dick had let out a whoop of joy at _flying_ again. He’d executed a front handspring upon landing, and as he raised his hands to an imaginary crowd, he finally caught the corners of Bruce’s mouth turning up, just a fraction.

 

2\. Jason Todd - Sorrow

Jason learned later—after the Lazarus Pit, after trying to kill Bruce and Dick and the Replacement, after he finally started clawing his way back towards something resembling sanity—that Bruce had cried during Jason’s funeral. Jason didn’t believe it, at first; the only emotions Bruce ever showed were anger and disappointment. Everything else was just an act.

If just Dick had told him about the tears, Jay probably wouldn’t have believed him. Not that Dick was a liar, precisely, but Dick was Bruce’s protégée and was just as bad about manipulating the truth to meet his needs.

It’s after another fight with Bruce where they’re not talking; Alfred turned up unannounced to wash all his laundry and bake cookies. It was as Jason had his mouth full of warm cookie that Alfred made the comment in the offhand way only he could manage. Jay makes his way to the Manor later that night, hiding in the shadows as he watches Bruce standing over Jason’s empty grave. He’s not mourning, not really; but even in the moonlight, Jason can see more emotion on Bruce’s face than he ever has, and he can believe that maybe Bruce did cry after all.

 

3\. Tim Drake - Hope

The others think that Tim is crazy. He’s not sure he blames them, but he just can’t let himself believe that Bruce is dead. Not after everyone else that Tim has lost. If Dick, Jason, Steph, and Cass can’t understand that, he’ll do this on his own. He refuses to ever stop hoping that Bruce survived somehow.

So he travels the world, looking for evidence of Bruce’s survival. It’s in a cave in Iraq that he finds it, the centuries’ old bat emblem painted on the rough stone wall. Bruce had to have believed one of them would find it, eventually, otherwise he wouldn’t have left such an obvious clue. The only logical explanation now is that Bruce is trapped sometime in the past.

But with Ra’s al Ghul trying to take over Wayne Enterprises and destroy the family name, Tim has to abandon his search; the company was Bruce’s legacy, his parents’ legacy, a hope he entrusted to Tim. It was the hope he had given Tim along with the Robin costume, a hope that came with the name _Wayne_ added to his own.

A hope for a better future that Bruce knew he would return to, some day.

 

4\. Stephanie Brown - Faith

Steph knows she isn’t the first former Robin to hate Bruce, just a little. Okay, maybe a lot, but certainly not as much as Todd did. And Bruce and Dick had some amazing fights that left the rest of the Family speechless. Actually, it seemed to her like all the previous Robins hated him on some level, so she never really felt all that guilty about it.

It was that damn emotionless mask of his.

Every night, they were out there busting their asses to keep Gotham safe, and then during the day they had to slog through school. Would it really have killed the man to at least offer a hint of praise now and then? She nearly died to protect his secret identity, and what did she get in return?

Batgirl.

And wasn’t that just the damnedest thing? The man had tried to forbid her from being on the streets, but he’d gone and put his faith in _her_ to carry the symbol if he ever died. She could only imagine how hard that must have been for him, the man who had backup plans for everything. This time, she would wear the suit with that comfortable knowledge.

 

5\. Damian Wayne - Family

Damian often does not understand Father or his quest to save the city of Gotham. There are many things Damian disagrees with his mother and grandfather about, but Gotham isn’t one of them; the city is beyond anything but the most significant measures.

Grayson makes even less sense than Father; at least Father’s family came from Gotham, helped to build it. Grayson ended up in Gotham by unlucky chance, stuck around, and then came back after spending several years in Bludhaven.

He hates the fact that Grayson takes on his Father’s mantle, but Damian can do no more than bide his time until he has learned enough to claim it for himself. As time passes, they fall into a routine that is almost comfortable. Damian finds himself nearly disappointed when Father finally returns.

But Father looks at him and Grayson, standing in the cave with all but their masks in place. He puts a hand on each of their shoulders and smiles and calls them _my sons_. Grayson beams in return, and even though Damian scoffs, he doesn’t argue the point. Grayson might not be a Wayne by blood, but had proven himself worthy, and that was fine by Damian.


End file.
